CAF Under-17 AFCON | COSAFA Qualifier set for September
The TotalEnergies CAF Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations | COSAFA Qualifier will be played in Harare, Zimbabwe from September 11-20 when the 12 competing teams will go in search of a place at the continental finals next year.
The draw for the tournament has already been made, whetting the appetite for what is sure to be a thrilling showcase of youth football in the region.
Regional powerhouses Zambia and South Africa have been drawn together in Group B and are joined in the pool by Madagascar and Malawi in what looks a Group of Death, with only the top team in each pool and the best second-placed side advancing to the semifinals.
Zambia are the defending champions in the competition and the most successful side in its history, while South Africa are next on the list of most prolific winners.
Hosts Zimbabwe are the seeded team in Group A along with Mozambique, Comoros and Eswatini.
Group C contains last year’s beaten finalists Angola, Botswana, Mauritius and Lesotho.
In the previous edition, the top three teams advanced to the TotalEnergies CAF U17 Africa Cup of Nations finals, which in turn served as the qualifiers for the newly expanded 48-team FIFA Under-17 World Cup, which includes 10 teams from the African continent.
Nine COSAFA nations have qualified for the continental Under-17 finals in the past, with South Africa providing the best finish when they ended runners-up in 2015.
Angola finished third in 2019 and Malawi fourth in 2009, but it has been a tough age-group for the region in continental battles.
The COSAFA Under-17 Championship has been played under several guises in the past, including as part of the AUSC Region 5 Games, though the tournament was organised by COSAFA.
Defending champions Zambia (2017, 2019, 2022, 2024) lead the way with four wins, followed by South Africa (1994, 2002, 2020), while Angola (2018, 2021), Malawi (2001), Zimbabwe (2007) and Namibia (2016) have all lifted the trophy in the past.
South Africa have been runners-up on five occasions too, meaning they have been in the final of eight of the 12 previous tournaments played, a record.
Three finals have been decided by penalties, when Zimbabwe beat South Africa in 2007, when Namibia defeated the same opposition in 2016 and when South Africa edged Zambia in 2020.
Many players who have gone on to be senior national team players have come through the tournament in the past.
